CNN’s Alisyn Camerota Accused of Racism for Assuming Indian American Spelling Bee Champ Can Read Sanskrit

A CNN host received backlash from Twitter users accusing her of making a racist comment toward a 12-year-old Indian American National spelling bee champion in a segment following the event.

Alisyn Camerota, co-host of CNN’s New Day with Chris Cuomo, interviewed Ananya Vinay after her victory Thursday at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in National Harbor, Maryland, and asked her to spell “covfefe.”

“It’s a nonsense word. So, we’re not sure that its root is actually in Sanskrit, which is what you’re probably, uh, used to using, so, I don’t know. Anyway,” Camerota told the Fresno, California, native.

Twitter users immediately accused the host of making a racist statement following the segment:

“12-year-old Ananya Vinay won the National Spelling Bee so naturally CNN had her on to spell ‘covfefe’ and say some racist stuff to her,” comedian Jeremy McLellan wrote.

Thousands of Twitter users shared and retweeted his statement in agreement.

Columnist Monica Jasuja also accused the host of stereotyping those of Indian origin.

“Reinforcing the Sanskrit stereotype on a champion of a Indian origin, really? How progressive @CNN? Ever stepped outside the USA for #Covfefe?” Jasuja wrote.

Others defended the CNN host, saying it was well within the spelling bee’s guidelines:

David Abrams, a gaming critic, posted a screenshot of the transcript as well as a statement from a CNN spokeswoman, writing, “[D]on’t hold your breath for the apologies.”

The spokeswoman for CNN defended Camerota’s statement, saying the anchor has used that joke before, and it did not have anything to do with Vinay’s heritage.

“Alisyn made the same joking reference to the root of ‘covfefe’ in an earlier panel discussion that aired Wednesday. If she’s guilty of anything it’s recycling a joke. To assign a bias to what was a fun and innocent segment celebrating Ananya Vinay’s incredible accomplishment is frankly extremely cynical,” the spokesperson told the Washington Post, which included a transcript of the segment.